So last night, I decided to go the gym. I get there, did 40 minutes on the elliptical at a pretty steady pace and felt good, did a short row on the machine (found out, I am not a rower), and then did a 10 minute cool down walk on the treadmill. I was feeling good, and decided that I should do my stretching and avoid the mess of waking up in the morning with the inability to move.

On my way home, I stop at the store and encounter a checkout guy who skipped the “polite conversation” class and unloaded on me about the troubles he is having with his car. I feign total disinterest, but this is lost as he holds my groceries hostage.

So I get home, grab a snack, and wash off the gym. Then I settle down to catch up on Doctor Who. Good episode (end of a two-parter) and then I notice my heart is racing a little. Then a lot.

So I go to our trusted home blood pressure monitor and strap in, and get my first reading (169/79 with a 94 “resting” pulse). I think to myself – through a veiled panic – that is a little high, but I had just climbed the stairs, so decided to relax some, do my breathing, and take it again (155/86/98). One down, and two up.

So I’m willing myself to relax, breathing more, and listening to the pounding in my chest. A short time later, I notice a pain in the left side of my chest and thought this is not right, so took the BP again. 168/96/96 – so two up, and one down and at least I have a matching pair. So then I start to freak out – as one does, and lay on the ground and really try to relax.

As I listened to the house reverberatng with the beating of my drum, breathing in, breathing out, I pressed the BP button again: 171/93/126. So at this point, I’m really freaking out. I head downstairs, get changed, called a friend to see if they were awake to drive me to hospital (they were snoozing as they should), I jumped in the car and drove to the hospital. Much of the trip is a blur – for reasons that I shan’t go into for concern of law enforcement reading this, but as I’m driving my left arm goes numb and I try to get to the hospital quicker (again, no details).

So there I was at Centennial Hospital in a wheelchair being driven to a room to get checked out, and then the pounding starts to slow down, the pain starts to dissipate, and I realize that this was more mental than physical. (Side note, Doctor Who is pretty good, but even that episode that I was watching was not THAT good that it could have triggered this reaction.)

So about two hours later, after a few tests, a pep talk by the ER doctor, and a realization that I can get a little overwhelmed at times, I got back in my car and drove home.  The ER doctor reminds me that the body can deal with a lot, but sometimes the mind can overwhelm the body into thinking something is happening when it is not (you know the speech about “fight or flight”). Minds a fantastic creations, but mine sometimes terrorizes me.

I didn’t watch the remaining part of the Doctor Who episode, but I did calm down (thank you little white pill) and headed of to sleep. And sleep I did.

No related posts.

No related posts.

Apart from the obvious (more exercise), there is another element that I started to research that could contribute to this increase. This is drug interactions.

I found a great site (drugs.com) that lists many of the more commonly available drugs on the market, and each listing provides you with major, moderate or minor interactions with other drugs (including supplements).

I was surprised to find that the tummy fixers (like Rolaids, Tums, etc.) have a moderate interaction with my BP medication. These fixers are based on calcium product, and the BP medication is a calcium blocker, so by taking these fixers, I am making it more difficult for my BP to work. My multivitamin is also a moderate interaction, as it includes calcium (it’s important to note that it is the amount of extra calcium that may cause the problem, not calcium itself).

So I went through all my supplements and cold/flu/allergy pills to find out which ones work with no interaction or minor interaction, and I was actually relieved that my daily allergy pill is fine, as is the DayQuil that I took a few weeks ago when I thought I was coming down with a cold.

It’s worth checking out if you are on any medications, or just want to see what interactions exist with the common supplements that you may take.

URL is here: http://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.html

“What we are seeing now is about 60 percent of the population is practicing safe sex most of the time, and about 40 percent of the population are barebacking or not practicing safe sex,” Zians said.

The article focuses on the increase of barebacking that is taking place amongst men who have sex with men, and seeks to explore who these men are, and why they are doing what they do “in the raw.” I think it is interesting that two terms appear in this article that suprised me: “safe-sex fatigue” and “condom fatigue” which suggest one of the reasons that there has been an increase in barebacking. Add to this the article in Rolling Stone – “In Search of Death” – which reported on “bug chasers” (men who actively seek out HIV-positive men to have sex with), and one can start to understand why there could be a larger group of men who undertake this practice (even though the articles contains many inaccuracies).

Factors contributing to the condomless numbers include a larger number of young gay men not hearing or relating to the safe-sex message, a surprising older population of guys abandoning condom use due to safe-sex fatigue, and a new epidemic among IV drug users.

Now more than ever, the need for a resurgence of the safe-sex message is so important. There are increases in HIV infections occuring amongst youth, and amongst older men (this group was more noticeable in Collin County in 2005). Sadly, living where we do, where sex is more of a concern that diseases, it can only be through community action that we can make this happen.

No related posts.